Two average-sized guys and I drove 250 miles from Camarillo, CA to Ensenada, Mexico in a Ford Festiva in 1994. I was in the back seat. We saw some things on the road that convinced us never to do it again.

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"I wish I had documented more…" said nobody on their death bed, ever.

Overall, we're pleased with it after 3-4 months. It's reliable, quiet, reasonably powerful for a 4 cyl(180hp), looks good and handles very well.

The not-so-good;

I believe the steering ratio is too quick for an SUV, it seems more atune to a sports car. On the highway, attempting slight corrections seem exaggerated because of this(we had an older '98 CRV that drove more "relaxed" by comparison). Ergonomically, the seats are comfortable enough but the arm rests (centre) are too high...we both felt this, kind of jams your elbow up, there's no adjustment for it, just flip it up out of the way. I would also have to say that fuel consumption is somewhat poorer than we expected, not terrible, but well off the Canadian fuel guidelines.

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Half of communication is listening. You can't listen with your mouth.

Overall, we're pleased with it after 3-4 months. It's reliable, quiet, reasonably powerful for a 4 cyl(180hp), looks good and handles very well.

The not-so-good;

I believe the steering ratio is too quick for an SUV, it seems more atune to a sports car. On the highway, attempting slight corrections seem exaggerated because of this(we had an older '98 CRV that drove more "relaxed" by comparison). Ergonomically, the seats are comfortable enough but the arm rests (centre) are too high...we both felt this, kind of jams your elbow up, there's no adjustment for it, just flip it up out of the way. I would also have to say that fuel consumption is somewhat poorer than we expected, not terrible, but well off the Canadian fuel guidelines.

I've found the ride of Toyota equivalents to be much softer esp. in the suspension. You can really feel the more sport like steering in the Honda.

Our older CRV has been a great vehicle for size, capacity and esp. in the winter, the AWD.

Fuel consumption is never as good as advertised.Hell, Kia recently admitted they embellished on fuel consumption claims.You can only really use some of those numbers as relative to each other to give you an idea of what cars might be better in that regard.

_________________________"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."